tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81383692338847886612017-09-26T14:29:39.702-04:00Educating South CarolinaWhere educators and others can share ideas about the past, present and future of public education in South Carolina, as well as programs and policies impacting the lives of South Carolina's children and their educators.Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.comBlogger579125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-84571472034034691462012-05-04T10:05:00.001-04:002012-05-04T10:13:09.947-04:00Educators defeat massive charter expansion bill*Ah, Alabama.* You give us hope. If only you were nearer, so we might see more easily the lessons you offer.
Word from Montgomery this week informs us that the Alabama Senate has defied its more radical ideologues -- the far right-wingers demanding an immediate dismantling of public education in that state -- and replaced a massive expansion of Alabama charter school statutes with a bill Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-80569211906943837732012-05-03T16:17:00.000-04:002012-05-03T16:17:53.535-04:00Spartanburg doesn't want unfunded bus mandateEditors of the Herald-Journal last week detailed their skepticism of Governor Nikki Haley's scheme to privatize the state's school bus system, declaring that they don't want another unfunded mandate sent down from Columbia.
I doubt that Haley will suddenly reverse course upon reading the editors' commentary; after all, they endorsed Vincent Sheheen against Haley in 2010, cautioning their readersEducating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-23394887263581736992012-05-03T16:14:00.000-04:002012-05-03T16:14:42.341-04:00Lawmakers seek to punish unemployed educatorsLet's begin with vocabulary.
"Employed" means having a job, and working.
"Unemployed" means not having a job, and not working.
"Unemployment benefits" are the weak, thin and pale safety net that South Carolina lawmakers pretend to offer our state's unemployed citizens as subsistence -- the barest minimum in funding that might help buy groceries and little else.
Because some public employees Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-24590294149873368372012-05-03T16:10:00.000-04:002012-05-03T16:10:38.090-04:00Leventis speaks truth to entrenched powerSen. Phil Leventis has many fans and many detractors, and that's likely because he's been in office many years.
As he wraps up his last term, it's pleasant to see him still swinging for the fences, as he does in this opinion-editorial, published last week in The State.
Tell it, Senator.With my legislative tenure coming to an end, I want to share something with my fellow South Carolinians. Our Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-72108597785259198442012-05-03T16:08:00.000-04:002012-05-03T16:08:06.933-04:00Education deform, straight from the horse's mouthThe fact that the Wall Street newspaper Investors Business Daily has given FreedomWorks president and CEO Matt Kibbe space in its publication to discuss education "reform" is informative.
It reflects that, from the corporate community's perspective, the privatization of public education represents a treasure trove of profits potentially reaching hundreds of billions of dollars.
Somebody, after Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-91080281566046689442012-05-03T16:01:00.000-04:002012-05-03T16:01:44.763-04:00Because Spartanburg needs a Texas-based charter schoolWhen I first scanned this note, I thought High Point University, way up in North Carolina, was trying to open a charter school in Spartanburg. Why, I thought, would someone in North Carolina want to entangle themselves in running a charter school down here?
I read it more closely and discovered that the people initiating this charter school in Spartanburg aren't from North Carolina, they're fromEducating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-83331413344199245922012-05-03T15:53:00.000-04:002012-05-03T15:53:35.544-04:00Beaufort mourns loss of student leader, musicianThis is a beautiful note and worthy of sharing statewide, by Island Packet reporter Erin Moody.When Craig Washington talked, everyone listened, his brother Charles said.
It was the same when he played his guitar.
One of the first black children to integrate Beaufort County schools and a jazz musician of local and regional renown, he died Tuesday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-39571464054179174832012-05-03T15:50:00.000-04:002012-05-03T15:50:55.477-04:00Zais's plan to discard public schools inches aheadLet's see: It's a proposal that brings back segregation -- by gender, this time, but the die is cast -- and opens public school athletic programs to students who are not enrolled in those public schools.
In essence, it turns traditional public schools into a neighborhood Boys Club and Girls Club, with teachers and a cafeteria.
So we're one step closer to dismantling public education for good, Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-31013535166622780362012-05-03T15:46:00.000-04:002012-05-03T15:46:08.919-04:00Ravitch comments on ALEC's reach into educationIf you think citizens are in control of our government, think again.Since the 2010 elections, when Republicans took control of many states, there has been an explosion of legislation advancing privatization of public schools and stripping teachers of job protections and collective bargaining rights. Even some Democratic governors, seeing the strong rightward drift of our politics, have jumped on Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-75533612330786675272012-05-03T15:44:00.000-04:002012-05-03T15:44:00.383-04:00Florence produces state Teacher of the YearEllen Meder of the Florence Morning News delivers the winner:A Pee Dee teacher took the state’s top honor for a South Carolina educator Tuesday night.
Amy McAllister-Skinner won South Carolina’s Teacher of the Year award, which was selected by the S.C. Department of Education and presented by South Carolina Future Minds. She teaches 11th grade English at Johnsonville High School, and with only Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-58598368724310518232012-05-03T15:41:00.000-04:002012-05-03T15:41:15.960-04:00Goodwin named superintendent in ChesterfieldFrom the Florence Morning News:The Chesterfield County School Board has selected a new superintendent to take the place of its retiring longtime schools leader.
Harrison Goodwin will take the helm of the 17-school district in July after serving as an assistant superintendent at Spartanburg County District One for more than seven years. He will be taking the place of 40-year district veteran JohnEducating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-25880182335343488892012-05-02T20:12:00.000-04:002012-05-02T20:12:07.476-04:00South Carolina: Where the rubber meets the roadAtlanta, the metropolis, identifies with several well-established brands -- Coca-Cola and CNN among them -- and is capital of the South itself, with Georgia generally known for peaches and peanuts. So Georgia feeds its people two ways, with the fruits of the earth and with intelligence about their world.
North Carolina transitioned from tobacco and marine fisheries to Research Triangle Park, Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-37121330228917078932012-05-02T16:51:00.000-04:002012-05-02T16:51:11.489-04:00State program too successful, will be eliminatedSay a thing often enough and the people will believe it.
That was the credo of What's-His-Name Goebbels, minister of propaganda for the Third Reich, and it seems to have finally reached a critical mass of effectiveness as the operating strategy of lawmakers who have wanted to eliminate the Teachers and Employees Retention Incentive since its inception.
Reporter Adam Beam, writing for The State Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-40551399449412862202012-05-02T16:43:00.000-04:002012-05-02T16:43:01.433-04:00Is Ware Shoals cutting educators' pay?A note was published last week in the Greenwood Index-Journal about a proposal to cut educators' salaries to help balance the local district's budget, but I haven't heard whether the issue has been resolved, or how.
This was the original note, by reporter Erin Owens:Ware Shoals School District Board of Trustees discussed possible ways in which the district can cut its budget for the 2012-13 Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-47837874966107821682012-05-02T16:26:00.000-04:002012-05-02T16:26:40.636-04:00Ruling in Abbeville v South Carolina is long overdueI've mentioned the Abbeville v South Carolina case several times before; it's the suit brought on behalf of several poor, rural school districts to force lawmakers to address inequity in school funding in our state, and it's the litigation at the heart of Bud Ferillo's documentary, "Corridor of Shame."
In the April 20 edition of the Statehouse Report, Andy Brack took up the topic and concluded Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-38765669478771177232012-05-02T16:22:00.000-04:002012-05-02T16:22:48.613-04:00Ravitch defends educators' due process rightsAnother reason to appreciate Diane Ravitch: She understands the need to protect educators' due process rights.Now that I have a blog where I can write what I want, when I want, I have the luxury of revisiting some good and bad ideas. In this post, I will revisit a really pernicious idea that appeared about a month ago in The New Republic. You see, the odd thing about our culture is that it is so Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-23929208310817797582012-05-02T15:39:00.000-04:002012-05-02T15:39:38.361-04:00Sumter still churning, 'right-sizing,' changingAsk Jay Schwedler, president and CEO of the Sumter Development Board, how his community earned accolades recently from Southern Business & Development magazine’s annual Top 10 issue, and he'll tell you "good things start with bold, smart leadership."“Every single one of these recognitions happened because leaders got together and made something positive happen,” he said. “Good things rarely just Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-81187393766125509112012-05-02T14:51:00.000-04:002012-05-02T14:51:24.298-04:00Haley's cleared after threatening legislatorsCorey Hutchens of Columbia's Free Times fills us in:South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley’s defense against an ethics probe into alleged improper behavior as a lawmaker could be summed up succinctly: Clear me or I’ll throw you all under the bus.
According to a copy of Haley’s defense obtained by Free Times, the governor’s lawyer wrote on March 30 to the chairman of the House Ethics Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-35470333331902205002012-04-24T10:38:00.000-04:002012-04-24T10:38:39.281-04:00Post & Courier uncovers ALEC's reach in SCReporters Robert Behre and Stephen Largen have outdone themselves with an investigative report on the influence of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in the South Carolina legislature, and by extension, on the public policy governing the lives of millions of South Carolinians.
With extensive background reporting, complete narratives, examples and facts, Behre and Largen set a Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-22123294007100641302012-04-24T10:15:00.000-04:002012-04-24T10:15:47.587-04:00Equalization schools highlighted in CharlestonHaving served briefly on the United States Supreme Court, Governor Jimmy Byrnes foresaw in 1951 that a number of low-level federal lawsuits would likely make their way to the nation's highest court within a few years and, given the Court's composition, might result in an order striking down the fifty-year-old "separate but equal" principle in public accommodations.
Byrnes made no secret of his Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-7243880591223486102012-04-24T09:58:00.000-04:002012-04-24T09:58:30.262-04:00McCampbell School honored in GranitevilleAiken reporter Rob Novit can unearth some real gems in his coverage for the Aiken Standard, and this is one of them.The Leavelle McCampbell school building received a historical marker on Saturday, with the event taking place in the school's 90th year.
Among the dozens of graduates and others in attendance was Minnie Ferguson, 94. She is living history, having started first grade at the school Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-72680100097438406342012-04-23T18:25:00.000-04:002012-04-23T18:25:57.780-04:00Bamberg trustees address lunch money problemsI can understand the need to allow students to charge their meals. Children in poor, rural counties are likely the children of under-employed South Carolinians.
If Governor Nikki Haley finds a spare minute in her day -- I know it must be crowded with national media requests and fashion photographers, all clamoring for an audience with her grace -- she might give some thought to improving the Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-22159870687895422332012-04-23T18:17:00.000-04:002012-04-23T18:17:30.839-04:00Congratulations to the South Florence NJROTCHigh achievement is always happy news.For the second year in a row, the NJROTC Academic Team at South Florence High School scored in the Top 10% of all NJROTC units in the nation during the annual National Academic Exam.
More than 1700 teams competed.
Following stiff competition against several other local NJROTC units, the South Florence Academic Team felt prepared and challenged the rest of Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-36243422181677555142012-04-23T18:11:00.000-04:002012-04-23T18:11:52.663-04:00Greenville News supports public school choiceThe headline tells the tale: "Open enrollment is a good idea."
That's the verdict of the editors of the Greenville News, and it accompanies an editorial that lays out in flat facts the case for supporting public school choice, the substance of a bill sponsored by Senator Wes Hayes and now before the Senate for consideration.
This is not the private school voucher bill adopted by the House in Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8138369233884788661.post-15901389382485444852012-04-23T17:56:00.000-04:002012-04-23T17:56:04.822-04:00Supreme Court upholds public education as a right*Next time I hear an American politician declare that we should be more like India, I'm going to shout AMEN.
Tucked away in the online edition of the Wall Street Journal last week was this nugget by Tripti Lahiri and Diksha Sahni:India's Supreme Court upheld a law Thursday that supporters say can transform access to education for hundreds of millions of poor children but critics claim infringes Educating South Carolinanoreply@blogger.com1